


the mystery behind the magician’s lips

by bentofaxmachine



Category: Magic Kaito, 名探偵コナン | Detective Conan | Case Closed
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Fluff, Idiots in Love, M/M, Post-Black Organization Takedown (Meitantei Conan), Shinichi is an idiot, did i mention that shinichi is an idiot, post kaitou kid, team kaishin is very much a thing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-03
Updated: 2020-11-12
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:42:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,036
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27372892
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bentofaxmachine/pseuds/bentofaxmachine
Summary: Shinichi is curious about what Kaito's lips are like, but don't worry, it's definitely not in a romantic way.
Relationships: Kudou Shinichi | Edogawa Conan/Kuroba Kaito | Kaitou Kid
Comments: 12
Kudos: 152





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I was rewatching the anime recently and was thinking about the London confession (“I can’t deduce the heart of someone I love”) and his tendency to way overthink obvious things (pre-class trip) and came up with this. Enjoy!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was rewatching the anime recently and was thinking about the London confession (“I can’t deduce the heart of someone I love”) and his tendency to way overthink obvious things (pre-class trip) and came up with this. Enjoy!

“What are Kaito’s lips like?”

Heiji nearly spits out his soda when he’s disrupted from his homework and a case file. He looks up at the doorway, and unsurprisingly, Kudou Shinichi, the former great high school detective of the east and one of his three roommates, is leaning uncomfortably with a cup of coffee in his hands.    
  


Heiji narrows his eyes. “Why the hell are ya askin’ me?” 

Shinichi shifts uncomfortably under the glare. The blush on the detective’s cheeks is impossible to miss. He checks the hallway behind him for eavesdroppers and begins to speak in a low tone. “Well, I was hanging out with Kaito the other night and for some reason starting wondering about his lips…? And I’ve never been close enough to him, uh, like that, but you did during that heist-”

“Okay, stop talking right now,” Heiji interrupts, hiding his growing flush under one hand and holding the other up like a stop sign. The moment Kaito had drunkenly revealed that he was the now-retired Kaitou KID during their monthly nights in, Heiji knew that he would never live down the incident that had happened between the two of them during the Conan-era. Of course, Kaito and Saguru gave him shit for it. On occasion, Shinichi would bring it up to discredit his deductions. Even his girlfriend likes to tease him about it during their more lighthearted arguments. 

It’s unfair, really; everyone makes fun of Heiji for that single (albeit massive) mistake, but no one can say anything about how Shinichi became a child for a whole year and lived with his supposed soulmate and went to fucking  _ grade school _ . If the magician wasn’t so gone for Shinichi, then he and Hakuba could get away with making the Tokyoite detective the butt of the joke every once in a while. Instead, teasing the Heisei Holmes means that you wake up the next morning at the mercy of one former phantom thief.

Heiji takes a deep breath and takes his head out of his hands. “Well, he’s got soft lips, they were glossy, too, but that may be because he was pretending to be Kazuha…” he trails off, taking in the situation. “Wait, why am I explaining this to ya? First off, it was a mistake 5 years ago. Secondly…” he trailed off before shaking his head, “Second of all, why dontcha just find out yourself? Such a great detective should be able to find such a simple answer.” Shinichi’s face fell for a moment but then smirked from the challenge.

“No problem for someone with my skill,” he responds before turning down the hallway to his and Kaito’s shared room.

“Getting cocky, aren’t we?” Heiji calls down the hallway.  _ Hopefully, you’ll get some real cock soon, too.  _

Kaito’s back from his classes today, so there’s obviously no response from his friend. Instead, he just pats himself on the back.

Once the other detective has closed the door to his room, Heiji pulls out his phone and texts a group chat called “Team KaiShin”.

_ “kudou just asked me about kuroba’s lips” _

He gets various responses right away, ranging from  _ yay :)  _ and  _ can they hurry up?  _ Down the hall, he hears their other roommate, Saguru, opts for a verbal response and screams out “Finally!”

Of course, it was immediately followed by a synchronized “Shut up!” from Kaito and Heiji.

* * *

The next afternoon, Sagaru catches Shinichi hunched over an assignment for their classes in the university's main library. His brow is furrowed and his hand rests on his chin. As Saguru quietly approaches the other detective, he sees that about 15 sheets of paper filled with Punnett Squares along with various biology textbooks scattered about.  _ Odd, I don’t remember Shinichi mentioning a biology course for this semester or a physical science one for that matter. _

Saguru decides that Shinichi looks ridiculous right now. He takes a picture of the deranged detective with a hint of madness in his eyes. Shinichi turns around at the shutter sound.

“Hakuba, would you care to explain why you just took a photo of me?”

Explaining would probably make the situation worse. Saguru decides to ignore the other boy’s question in exchange for his own. “What are you doing with all of this biology work out? I thought you had already fulfilled your physical science requirement.”

Shinichi looks up. His annoyance with the other detective is obvious. “Yesterday, I tried asking Hattori about Kaito’s lips because I couldn’t stop thinking about them the other day-” he freezes at the sight of Hakuba’s raised eyebrow, “-I mean, in a platonic way… but that’s not the point! The idiot told me to figure it out myself, so now I’m…” he gestures to the mess on the table, “…well, you get it.”

Saguru furrows his eyebrow and scratches his head. “No, I don’t. Unfortunately, you’re going to need to explain this a little more.”

Shinichi rolls his eyes as if what he’s doing is the most natural thing ever. “I looked up images of his father and mother and made Punnett Squares which align with the alleles which correspond to lip type. It’s a long process since I don’t know a lot about biology, but I’m making progress. See?” he shoves the papers into Saguru’s face. 

Shinichi’s right: he’s done a lot of work. But… 

“Kudou-kun, do you know what to do with this information once you have it?” A confused glance. “What I mean is, you’ll have the allele sequences, but I doubt you’ll be satisfied with your findings. How are you supposed to reconstruct his lips?” Embarrassed, Saguru only mutters the last sentence loud enough for Shinichi to hear.  _ I can’t believe I have to explain this to one of the greatest minds of our generation. _

The moment he comprehends what his friend said, Shinichi’s face crumples as he smacks his forehead. He leans back in the chair and stares at the ceiling.

“I should've thought of that,” Shinichi groans, shifting his arm to cover his eyes. Saguru prays that the other detective isn’t crying.  _ The last thing I need right now is Kuroba up my ass for the next week and a half because I made Kudou-kun break down. _

He reaches out to pat the other detective’s head but realizes that that’s probably a terrible idea. Instead, he sits down next to the other detective and looks him in the eye. “Don’t worry about the mess here. I think Kuroba-kun is waiting for you back at the apartment. I’ll put the textbooks away and reorganize your notes.”

A still disgruntled Shinichi moves his arm off of his eyes. “Kaito is waiting for me in the apartment?” His eyes brighten considerably and nearly jumps out of his seat. It falls over, making Shinichi flush from the nosy glances attracted by the noise. “Thanks for helping me out, Hakuba. And don’t worry about the notes, you can just throw them out.” He slings his backpack over his shoulder and picks up the chair.

“You know, you should go on a more personal route to find the answer to your questions. Kuroba-kun is your frie- I mean, uh, not a suspect. You have more direct methods to be doing this.”

Shinichi tries to smile gratefully, but it’s clear he’s only thinking about going back to the apartment. He thanks Saguru for a final time and disappears down the stairs, and it only occurs to him at that moment that Kaito has no idea that Shinichi was waiting for him. 

At least the magician is easy to convince, especially when it comes to his favorite detective. Kaito picks up on the fourth ring.

_ “What do you want?” _

“Kudou-kun is having a crisis that’s not my fault. Spend some time together tonight and try to make him feel better. He’s about 10 minutes away since he was just in the library.”

_ “Oh-fucking hell-” _ there’s a crash in the background,  _ “ouch! Yeah, I got it,”  _ is all the magician says as Saguru winces at the sound of an explosion. He’s certain that Kaito had quite literally dropped everything to prepare for an unforgettable night of definitely-not-sex with his (loudly expressed) crush.

“Kaito, please don’t burn down the apartment. We can’t afford a more expensive one.”

A laugh bubbles up from the other side of the line.  _ “You mean  _ I _ can’t afford a more expensive one. Thank you for looking out for me. Also what was Shinichi doing in the library?” _

“Figure it out yourself,” Saguru responds sharply, ignoring Kaito’s snarky comments. He hangs up right away, slightly fuming but also hoping the time alone would give Shinichi a chance to find the answer to his question.

To be honest, no one but the two of them knows what happens in their shared room in the apartment. In fact, no one has been allowed in their room for months now. Sometimes when the Kaito and Shinichi disappear into it, Saguru, Heiji, and the girls press their ears to the neighboring walls and strain their ears. There’s no sound though, just an occasional mutter which is too quiet to even comprehend. Saguru himself is certain they spend all of their time gazing lovingly into each other’s eyes, but there’s some discourse happening within the “Team KaiShin” group chat arguing otherwise.

Speaking of which… 

Once he’s finished putting the last of the textbooks away, he sends the photos of a panicked Shinichi to the group with a message recapping the past 15 minutes in the library. Immediately, he gets a response from Heiji which says  _ “holy shit he’s such an idiot”. _

For once, Saguru agrees with the Osakan detective. 

* * *

The next day, Ran and Shinichi are sitting in their cafeteria during their routine weekly lunches. They started back in high school when he had first come back from his year-long leave of absence. She’s still not quite sure what happened, but when he came back, he was very much disinterested in starting a relationship with her. At first, Ran was annoyed and dejected. She spent their first lunches pestering him for details, but she quickly realized that Conan disappearing and reappearing at the same time as Shinichi wasn’t a coincidence. Considering that he had returned with a massive number of contacts in the FBI, CIA, and other international organizations, Ran decided that wanted as little as possible to do with his time away.

It worked out for the best though, since they both ended up with someone better for them. Well, not Shinichi yet, but everyone knew it was just a matter of time.

Today, Ran is in the midst of trying to recount her video-chat date with Sera. Shinichi is unusually absorbed in his phone, jotting down an occasional note in a notebook. She switches to recap a murder that her girlfriend to see if he’ll pretend to be interested, but when he doesn’t look up at that, she suddenly snatches Shinichi’s phone from across the cafeteria’s table. He looks up in alarm.

“Oi, give that back!”

“Why? What can be more interesting than what I have to say? My girlfriend’s solving crime in Ameri- oh, I see…” she holds up his phone and watches his face freeze before rolling his eyes. 

Shinichi has four different social media apps opened up, along with an album filled with photos from the party that the boys had hosted in their apartment last week he has saved to his phone. All of the photos had Kaito in them. Ran also takes a mental note of the fact that there were just too many of those photos saved privately to his profiles. After browsing through while dodging the detective’s weak attempts at getting his phone back, it’s clear that this habit began last year when the detectives and Kaito had first moved in together.

Ran smirks. “Stalking your crush. Did you ever do this to me during high school?”

“What? No, I didn’t have a phone back then. Shit, I mean, I-” Shinichi coughs loudly and gulps down his water. “He’s not my crush, and I’m not stalking him. I just want to know what his lips are like. Not in a romantic way though,” he tacks on the last part, just to be clear.

Ran looks down at the phone, confused. “In what world is this ‘not romantic’? Who platonically wonders what someone’s lips are like?” she refutes condescendingly, using air quotes to emphasize her point. 

Shinichi glares at her for a moment, but eventually, his jaw drops, and his eyes widen in shock. “Oh my god, do I like… Kaito?”

His friend just yawns at his revelation. “Did you just figure it out now?”

The dumbfounded detective can only nod.

Ran just signs. “We’ve all known, but I mean, you’ve said it yourself, that you can’t deduce the hearts of someone you love. Also, you guys share a room and spend way too much time in there for it to be normal, and none of us actually know,” Ran points out as her friend’s cheeks tint red. She looks up, wondering aloud, “What does happen in there?”

Shinichi spluttered and scratched his cheek. “That’s, uh, private…and wait, how do you know I… I love him?” His cheeks are suddenly flooded with heat. He averts his eyes from Ran who reaches out to grab his hand. Ran knows if it wasn’t for his aversion to breaking their promises, he would have been out of there in an instant. 

“Trust me, I think you knew before the rest of us.” 

She lets him sit there for a moment and process his sudden epiphany. She grins softly. 

“I love him,” he repeats in a hushed tone, testing it on his tongue. 

Ran rolls her eyes to try to suppress a smile. Her eyes catch Kaito paying for his lunch so she desperately changes the subject. “By the way, if you don’t tell me what happens in your room, then I’m going to hold onto your phone to see if there’s some evidence on it.”

With a strangled cry, Shinichi makes a desperate bid for the aforementioned cell phone. Soon after their fight begins, Kaito saunters over to the duo and drapes himself around the detective, pinning down the arms of the irritated detective. 

“Whatever happened, I side with Shinichi,” Kaito purrs. He takes the seat next to Shinichi, who’s blushing furiously. He takes his arm further from the boy off of him and gestures for the phone.

Ran rolls her eyes and hands it to Kaito. “You win this time, but only because my girlfriend isn’t here to defend my honor and my karate stays in the dojo.” The magician stiffens at the mention of Sera. A slightly recovered Shinichi looks up at Kaito and says, “Don’t worry, I’ll protect you from Ran’s Jeet Kune Do girlfriend!”

Just like that, they’ve forgotten that Ran’s even here.

This was definitely not part of the plan, but Ran remained unfazed. She stands up, making a point to ‘accidentally’ step on Kaito’s foot. They both look up at her, and there are unmistakable tears forming in the magician’s eyes. “Look, Shinichi, now that Kaito-kun is here, you don’t need to open up a hundred photos of him to figure  _ it  _ out!”

With another smirk, she stalks off. Luckily, Kaito has Shinichi pinned down. The only thing she hears is Kaito cooing, “Aww, you were looking at photos of me, Shin-chan?” and immediate response of “Don’t call me that, you idiot”.

Ran takes one last glance at the couple, praying that her idiot childhood friend could fend for herself. He’s biting his lip and leaning away from a grinning Kaito, but doesn’t fight off the arm still hanging around him protectively.  _ This is actually… kinda cute, _ Ran thinks, before snapping a picture and sending it to “Team KaiShin”.

_ “Shinichi figured it out!” _

Kazuha responds right away.

_ “What happened?” _

Ran finds a secluded hallway to record an audio message recapping her eventful lunch in lieu of a long text. Aoko sends a celebratory emoji. Kazuha adds to it, saying  _ “Can we just lock them into a room together?” _

Of course, Ran responds, typing out that, “They do that already anyway.”

Ran finds an outdoor bench to sit on to wait for the boys. She watches Kaito and Shinichi eventually stroll past her, walking a little too close together and forgetting anyone else exists. As usual, their backs of their hands touch each other but neither of them made a real move to grab the other’s hand. 

However, Shinichi’s Kaito face (as she calls it) is replaced with a look of determination and focus which he reserved for murders and Kaito’s so-called Poker Face was slightly collapsed.  _ We can’t leave these two alone, can we? _

Desperate times call for desperate measures. She reopens “Team Kaishin” and demands: “Boy’s room. Dinner tonight.”

Without waiting for an approving message, Ran calls the only other person who was equipped enough to boss around the boys. She picks up the phone immediately.

_ “Hi, Ran-chan! Can Aoko do anything for you?” _

Ran smiles fondly, responding, “I’m actually just calling to give you a heads up that Kaito might be in a pouty mood this afternoon. Whatever you guys do on days like that, make sure it happens in the boy’s apartment. I’ll make sure Shinichi is there and we’ll figure it out from there.”

_ “On no, did something happen already?” _

She shakes her head, glancing at the boys. “Nothing too serious I think. Just idiots being idiots.”

* * *

As predicted, Aoko is sitting with Kaito in the boy’s sitting area not even three hours later, listening to him go on about Shinichi for what feels like the thousandth time. As promised, Ran let herself into the apartment, preparing dinner for their crew and guarding the door so Shinichi can’t slip out for the night. And as anticipated, Kaito has been lying his head on Aoko’s lap, muttering nonsense for the past 10 minutes.

They usually do this at the girl’s apartment, where Kaito would lie on Aoko’s bed as she pretended to do her homework. In reality, she would update “Team Kaishin” on the couple’s drama. This is the first time Ran is here to personally witness a Kaito Crisis in person.

She quickly realizes that you can only decipher what he has to say if the listener wants to put in the effort to do so. Ran doesn’t though since she’s cooking dinner for 7 starving students and has her music blasting loudly while she does so. 

Meanwhile, Aoko, the resident expert Kaito-translator, is petting his head gently. She only listens to him long enough to hear, “... and he’s just glaring at me with his scary murder face! He kept looking down too, and I didn’t see his eyes all afternoon. Did I do something wrong? I’m thinking back and…” before deciding to ignore him. Aoko twists her neck to talk to Ran.

“Ran-chan, how long is dinner in?

She checks the food and the time. “Probably about 20 minutes… why do you ask?” Aoko jerks her head towards a now neglected Kaito who was trying to grab Aoko’s chin to bring her attention back to him. A smile slowly grows on Ran’s face.

“Actually, I was thinking of making dessert since we have more time for dinner.” She makes sure to raise her voice before continuing, “maybe something with chocolate?”

Of course, Kaito perks up right away. He’s stopped moping and basically teleported into the kitchen, charming the cook like there’s no tomorrow. He’s promptly shut up when Ran points a ladle at him and accidentally splashes some of the miso soup on him. “You,” Ran snapped, not unkindly while further flourishing the ladle, “have to go talk to Shinichi right now if you even want to think about having some tonight.”

“But he’s mad at me,” the magician whined while wiping the soup off of his face. Aoko and Ran exchange exasperated glances until the stove bubbles loudly and makes suspicious noises. She yelps and calls out to Aoko, “Just do what you have to, Aoko-chan,” and before Kaito even realizes it, his childhood friend is dragging him across the apartment and locking him into his own room. Aoko calls into the room, “Figure your shit out!” and walks back over to Ran.

The kitchen is under control again, but it’s clear that Ran’s got her hands full. She smiles and nods gratefully when Aoko suggests just asking Saguru if he could buy a cake on his way back from the station since he ran into another murder today anyway. In “Team Kaishin”, Aoko sends a quick message.

_ “hakuba stop at that nice cake shop and get the large chocolate cake” _

_ “btw theyre in the room together and hopefully gonna resolve their issues” _

Hakuba responds with an affirmative, so Aoko helps to set up the table for 7 people. After setting down their plates and cups, she looks up at Ran. Ran lowers the music, and aside from the sizzling in a pan, the apartment is nearly silent.

“Do you think they’ve made progress by now?” Aoko wonders.

Ran doesn’t get a chance to respond, because as if on cue, Heiji stumbles out of his room with wide eyes and an alarming pallor. All he manages to blurt is, “They are so fucking loud. I will never know peace again, ya hear me?”

The two girls sigh in relief. Ran is repeating to herself “It finally happened,” and Aoko reaches for her phone.

_ “mission success!” _

In a couple of minutes, Saguru and Kazuha walk into the apartment at that point with massive grins on their faces. Kazuha jumps into Heiji’s arms, and he falls right onto the couch, screaming, “Give me a break, I’m traumatized!”. The other detective does his best to ignore the commotion and awkwardly hands Ran the cake. He also procures a bottle of champagne and pops the cork.

Team KaiShin is still toasting themselves and the new couple when a flushed Kaito and Shinichi step out of their room, hand in hand. Shinichi glares at their friends. 

“Were you guys  _ planning _ all of this out?”

Heiji snorts and rolls her eyes. “Well, ya guys weren’t gonna do it yourselves.”

Of course, Shinichi flushes bright red. He buries his face in Kaito’s chest, who hugs him protectively. 

“Lay off of my boyfriend,” he says with a proud, shit-eating grin plastered on his face. Shinichi squeezes him harder when he hears a collective sigh.

Once they let go of each other, Saguru passes the boys two mugs filled with champagne (since of course the apartment doesn't have enough cutlery or tableware) and toasts, “To Kaito and Shinichi! And to Team KaiShin.” He turns around to wink at his friends, who whoop in response.

“You guys have a name?!” Kaito screeched, causing the others to laugh even louder as they made their way to the table.

They’re too busy chatting and cheering to notice Shinichi muttering “To us,” into Kaito’s ear before standing on his toes to kiss him gently on his flushed cheek.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> One day, Shinichi will look back and realize that his (re)introduction to Kuroba Kaito was something like love at first sight.

There was a time when Shinichi didn’t share his room with Kaito. It was just him, Hattori, and Hakuba in an expensive apartment that they rented together with the help of their very generous parents. He had a queen-sized bed, a desk, and a nightstand stacked with case files which he had more often than not been going through until at least 3:00 A.M. He would get up after 3, maybe 4 hours of sleep to go to classes and solve the murder of whatever corpse had fallen on his head that day. The other two detectives had similar schedules, so naturally, the girls avoided their hellhole of an apartment like the plague.

He hardly ever ate a proper meal and had lost an unhealthy amount of weight and fell asleep in every class he took. His depression’s probably gotten worse, too, given his increased irritability and hopeless outlook on life (to be fair, taking down the Black Organization had left him a shell of a man- or boy?). Hakuba and Hattori had done more botched intervention attempts which ended in them bickering than he could count. And every time they meet, Ran looks at him with a sad look in her eye usually reserved for victims and the Detective Boys asking about Conan. He’d always say he’s fine though because he knew that things could’ve been worse.

But Shinichi counts his blessings every day. For one thing, he’s not a child anymore. For another, he doesn’t live alone anymore. And now, he’s got Kaito. 

He had met Kuroba Kaito through Nakamori Aoko, Ran’s roommate. It took them under a minute to deduce each other’s (former) alter egos. It took them just another to agree that _this never comes up again_. 

Around the same time Kaito reentered his life, Shinichi watched the self-hatred and cynicism slowly begin to leak out of his life. Every morning, Kaito let himself into the apartment and made breakfast and coffee for the detective (he didn’t have a key). He also became Shinichi’s “study partner”, which meant that they would pester each other until midnight when Kaito would have to wrestle case files out of the detective’s hands and force him to go to sleep before 12:30 A.M.

More often than not, Kaito ended up falling asleep before Shinichi. As a good friend, he just offered the magician a drawer to put some clothes in. 

Hakuba and Hattori initially took issue with the newcomer. The other two detectives were suspicious of the sudden disappearance of their collected grocery money. Now, neither of them would ever admit it, but Shinichi knew they were glad that Kaito was around when Hakuba would meal prep for the week and Hattori would make fun of him while eating a bag of potato chips. 

It was also the magician who mandated biweekly cleaning events throughout the apartment, where the roommates were forced to “clean your goddamn house to keep the rats out” while giving the most demanding tasks to Hakuba for the sole purpose of watching him suffer. Amidst the various obscenities muttered throughout the process, the detectives’ apartment slowly became a livable place to be. Kaito was upgraded from welcome guest to honorary roommate when furniture which he and Shinichi bought on a day out together had made Aoko’s jaw drop and rendered Ran speechless for several moments.

He basically lived there anyways, so when Kaito showed up at their door after a day of uncharacteristic silence with the news that he had been evicted from his apartment for one too many hazardous magic tricks, Shinichi didn’t hesitate to let him in.

* * *

Typically, they would wake up on other sides of the bed.

Today is different. Kaito and Shinichi’s comforter is on the ground for some reason but he’s still warm, which shouldn’t be the case in the middle of November. Shinichi tries to crawl out of bed, but he’s restrained by something wrapped around his chest and a following groan and sniffle. _Not something, but someone._

“Kaito, get off of me,” he orders, not unkindly. The other boy squeezes Shinichi harder and mutters, “Save me.”

_Sleep-talking._ Shinichi humors him. “From what?”

“Th-the f-fin-ny thing-s,” Kaito whimpers. 

Shinichi sighs. He can’t see Kaito because of the position he’s being held in, but he’s certain that the magician’s half-open eyes have tears spilling out of them. He settles back down since it’s clear that he can’t get up anyway.

“I suppose my criminology professor won’t miss me for a day,” Shinichi says with faked passive-aggressiveness. Kaito grumbles “Yay” and something else, but before he can ask what, the magician was already pretending to sleep.

There’s no point in trying to “wake” the magician. Shinichi laid there, thankful for Kaito’s body heat because he couldn’t reach their blanket. Kaito pulls him in even closer until the two of them are pressed up against each other nearly everywhere. Their feet are intertwined in a tangled mess and Kaito’s nose is tucked under Shinichi’s head, leaving him with a sole cold point thankfully muted due to his hair. _If he wasn’t my friend, then I would be panicking right now._

As a detective, he observed how he was struggling to relax his body because Kaito’s lips were pressed against the nape of his neck, blowing warm air onto him in a calming rhythm. His mind wouldn’t stop moving, wondering how those lips would feel elsewhere. 

Well, when you’re wondering about your best friend’s lips, there’s only one thing to do.

* * *

_“What are Kaito’s lips like?”_

_“Why the hell are ya askin’ me?”_

_“Well, I was hanging out with Kaito the other night and for some reason starting wondering about his lips…? And I’ve never been close enough to him, uh, like that, but you did during that heist-”_

_“…why dontcha just find out yourself? Such a great detective should be able to find such a simple answer.”_

* * *

That evening, Shinichi and Kaito were sitting on a grey loveseat in the apartment’s newly furnished living room. More specifically, Shinichi was sitting on the couch rereading _The Sign of Four_ when Kaito had sauntered over and draped himself across the seat and consequently the detective’s lap. Between the stupid faces that Kaito was making and the presence of those perplexing _lips_ , Shinichi had only gotten through two pages of his book before the magician snatches the book out of his hands.

“Hey, I was reading that!”

“No you weren’t, it’s been an hour and you’ve only gotten through two pages. Usually, you only look up if I make something burn, which is like once every other hour.” Shinichi’s brow furrows for a moment as he checks his phone. Kaito is terrifyingly accurate.   
  
His now free hands cup Kaito’s cheeks. He twists his back to lean down to Kaito’s face further, where he has a better view of his lips. _Full, pink, and slightly cracked, presumably from the cold weather…_

It takes him a moment to remember where he is. “Aww, _KID-sama_ , do you take pleasure in stalking my behavior?”

“What? No, I, uhhh… you were looking at me first! Is something wrong?” 

Kaito’s bright red and his poker face is demolished. Shinichi knew that if he asked _“What are your lips like?”_ right now, then he would get an answer right away. The only problem would be that his best friend would likely never let him live it down. He lets go of Kaito’s cheeks and stretches enough to crack his back several times. His eyes are trained to the ceiling.

“Nothing,” Shinichi responds with a teasing lilt to his voice. It doesn’t occur to him how much they’ve taken on much of each other’s personalities until he risks a glance at a grumbling Kaito who has covered his face with irritation. He actually feels kind of bad, so Shinichi moves his hand to run through his friend’s hair in the rhythmic way he always likes. They remain like that for a couple more minutes until Kaito suddenly sits up, properly seats himself on Shinichi’s lap, and slides his hands dangerously close to the waistband of the detective’s pants.

This time, it’s Shinichi’s turn to flush red. “Is Hattori watching us again?” 

“It’s in his blood as a detective. I’m just giving the audience what they want, Don’t worry, I anticipate us getting revenge soon,” Kaito smirks, nuzzling his neck with his fluffed up hair.

Shinichi rolls his eyes. It always confused him why the _audience_ would want him and Kaito to be so intimate. They’re just friends, after all.

But at least he would get something out of it. Something Kaito had said gave him a new angle to approach the original problem. 

* * *

_“What I mean is, you’ll have the allele sequences, but I doubt you’ll be satisfied with your findings. How are you supposed to reconstruct his lips?”_

_“I should've thought of that,”_

_”You know, you should go on a more personal route to find the answer to your questions. Kuroba-kun is your frie- I mean, uh, not a suspect. You have more direct methods to be doing this.”_

_“Kudou-kun is having a crisis that’s not my fault. Spend some time together tonight and try to make him feel better. He’s about 10 minutes away since he was just in the library.”_

* * *

The first thing Shinichi does when he gets back to the apartment is replace his pants with a pair of sweatpants Kaito had bought during one of his long-distance KID escapades. The second thing he does is launch himself onto his bed with a cathartic grunt. He remains there, wallowing in his misery and wondering what Kaito’s lips are like. 

“Shit,” he breathes. Where is Kaito, anyway? Didn’t Hakuba say he’d be here?

“Are you thinking about me?”

This time, Shinichi screams “Shit!” as he rolls over on the mattress too quickly. He falls off the bed with a _thud_. Kaito's looking down at him and struggling to stifle a laugh. Shinichi resolves to lie on the ground instead of climbing back onto the bed.

“You get 5 seconds to laugh at me.”

The next seconds are some of the most degrading his entire life (and that includes being shrunk into a child). Kaito snorts, actually _snorts_ , as he doubled over in his contagious cackle. It definitely takes longer than 5 seconds, but Shinichi eventually joins in because Kaito makes everything better.

Friends definitely make everything better.

Eventually, Kaito throws Shinichi on the bed and leaves the room, making him promise to not move an inch. When he comes back, he’s holding two bowls, the ones that Kaito normally uses for ice cream. Shinichi rolls his eyes.

“Kaito, just because ice cream makes you feel better doesn’t mean it’s the solution for my problems too.”

Kaito ignores him, holding out a bowl. “This one’s yours. Just try it. I know you’ll love it.”

It looks like ice cream, but not the one that Kaito’s eating with him. It’s melting faster, and is also somewhat transparent… 

Kaito lets out an exasperated sigh and places his own bowl on his nightstand. “Stop being a detective and just eat it,” he exclaims.

Before he can react, Kaito shoves a spoonful of bitter, cold, and lemony sweetness into Shinichi’s mouth… 

… and it’s fucking fantastic.

He swats Kaito’s hand from the spoon. As he scoops more of it from the bowl, he looks over at his proud friend and asks, “What is this? It’s amazing!”

Kaito laughs. “It’s lemon sorbet. For some reason, your taste buds crave bitter sweets like lemon pie, and I assumed that this is probably similar to it. I knew you’d like it,” he responds, puffing out his chest.

The slight way his shoulders relaxed when Shinichi had reacted indicates otherwise, but he chose not to say anything. “You know me so well. I don’t deserve friends like you…”

For a moment, Kaito’s face falls. He does his best to cover it up by picking up his own ice cream, but it leaves Shinichi wondering what he had said.

They finish their respective sweets in uncomfortable silence. Shinichi wants to say something, but he’s not sure what. 

When Kaito leaves the room again, he doesn’t say anything to the detective. The cool nature of his friend drives him insane. While waiting for the other boy to come back, Shinichi paces, rehearsing an apology for anything he had said.

Of course, amidst his pacing, he runs into Kaito who steadies him before he topples over. Before he knows it, Shinichi is trapped under the magician’s firm grip on either shoulder. Kaito’s eyes are unnaturally intense and searching, and Shinichi is entranced. His lips part in anticipation of something, but before he can place what exactly, he’s pulled into a strong embrace.

“You deserve the world, Kudou Shinichi. Just ask for it and I’ll bring it to you,” Kaito vows in a hushed tone. Kaito turns his head towards Shinichi’s neck and nestles his head there. Shinichi shifts his own down, closing his eyes from the intensity of the moment.

He would’ve asked then, about Kaito’s, but Shinichi’s body wouldn’t cooperate with his brain. His nose was buried into Kaito’s chest, and the combination of his smokey scent and firm chest left his knees weak.

Kaito spent the rest of the night continuing to read _The Sign of Four_ to Shinichi, who laid sleepily on his side facing the magician. He couldn’t help but be captivated by the former KID’s smooth voice, even as it became raspy.

Shinichi must’ve drifted off at some point because the next thing he knows, the room is dark and his arm has fallen asleep. Groggily, he notices that the lights are on outside of his room, and his three roommates are talking in the hallway. He lies on his back and strains his ears to no avail. The clock next to him says 1:00 A.M. _It’s past our bedtime._

“Kaiiiiii,” Shinichi groans, trying to get the magician’s attention but too tired to say the whole name.

He’s pretty sure Kaito didn’t hear him, so Shinichi pulls the comforter to his chin and closes his eyes. Gradually, his eyelids become heavier and his breathing becomes even. 

By the time Kaito returns, Shinichi is shocked he’s still conscious. Through a sleepy haze, he feels something warm press against his cheek. It leaves electricity and intense spreading through his entire body, causing Shinichi to squirm. 

Kaito’s chuckles breathily, unlike his cackle from the beginning of their night together. He runs his hands through the detective’s hair the same way he likes it. When he reminds Shinichi that “I get to call you a nickname now,” even though he’s supposedly asleep, everything clicks together.

_I don’t think I want to just be friends with Kaito._

* * *

_“…how do you know I… I love him?”_

_“Trust me, I think you knew before the rest of us.”_

* * *

_I love him._

_I love him._

_I love him._

That’s all he can think about when Kaito gets him his phone back.

That’s all he can think about when he promises to defend Kaito from Masumi.

That’s all he can think about when Kaito calls him Shin-chan for the first time and he hardly tries to stop him.

He’s missed the signs before, but now they refuse to go away. He’s definitely in love with Kaito, and he’s certain that he has for a long time. But more importantly, he’s got a foolproof method to unearth the mysteries behind the magician’s lips.

As usual, Shinichi is in his room, pretending to pore over case files while actually staring out the window and thinking about Kaito. He’s with Aoko right now, presumably back at the girl’s apartment doing whatever they did. But the house actually smells like homemade food, indicating that the girls are over. So he’s… here?

He stands up to go check the living room for him, but as he’s standing up, their door opens and Aoko throws Kaito into their room. He looks ready to bolt, but Aoko calls out “Figure your shit out!” and his hand slides away from the handle.

He turns around and Shinichi takes him in. Tall, built, a face with intense violet eyes and unruly hair. He unconsciously licks his lips, and Kaito’s eyebrows raise.

“Can I help you, Shinichi? You’ve been acting off all day.”

Shinichi looks up with determined eyes. “I’m going to kiss you.”

There’s hardly a moment between Kaito saying “Okay,” and Shinichi running and jumping into his arms. Shinichi wraps his legs around him and his breathing hitches, painfully aware of just how close he is to finding the answer to his question. Kaito stumbles back against the door and lets out a brief gasp from shock, but he leans forward and closes the gap between the two.

Kaito’s lips are soft and surprisingly glossy. _Chapstick_ , Shinichi deduces as he licks the cherry taste from them. Kaito is surprisingly passive during their kiss, letting the detective cradle his head and tilt it up. Shinichi coaxes his tongue into his mouth, and Kaito lets out a small moan which only excites him further as he lets his arms slide behind the magician’s neck and then down to his chest.

When Kaito pulls away, they’re both panting and flushed. Between breaths, Kaito smiles sheepishly and mutters, “I have to let you down now.”

Shinichi takes a step back but refuses to let go of Kaito’s hand. He smiles softly and looks into the magician’s eyes that have replaced their intensity with pure softness and fondness.

“I love you. Shit, I probably should have mentioned that before, but I-”

Kaito cuts him off with a chaste kiss which just brushes his lips. When he steps back again, his free hand cradles Shinichi’s face and gently brushes his cheek with its thumb. 

“I’ve loved you since we were reunited at that part. I knew you did too, and it was torture waiting for you to come to that conclusion on your own.”

Shinichi furrows his eyebrows and gently palms the Kaito’s hand on his face. “How could you know for that long?”

Kaito’s grin is familiar. “I am a rather intuitive person, Tantei-kun. Now,” he pushes Shinichi against their shared dresser, “You’ve had your fun. Why don’t we get that long-awaited revenge on our roommate?”

Shinichi smirks and makes sure to moan as loudly as possible when Kaito’s lips meet his lips again.

* * *

_“They are so fucking loud. I will never know peace again, ya hear me?”_

_“Were you guys planning all of this out?”_

_“Lay off of my boyfriend.”_

_“To us.”_

* * *

By 12:45 A.M, Shinichi had fallen on Kaito’s chest and was breathing constantly against his skin. Kaito pulled him into a tight embrace. Shinichi stirred, only muttering something along the lines of “you smell good” before going back to sleep. Kaito smiled, muttering “I love you” one more time to the detective before closing his eyes.

He had waited so long to say it and internally vowed to never miss an opportunity to remind Shinichi.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spoiler alert: they were basically a married couple all along!  
> Hope you guys enjoyed it :)
> 
> PS: you can find me on tumblr and twitter @bentofaxmachine


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